The Advisers’ Council on Thursday approved Telecommunication Network and Licensing Policy 2025, a landmark move aimed at dismantling monopolies in the country’s telecom sector, introducing greater deregulation and fostering private investment.
The Advisers’ Council, chaired by chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the Chief Adviser’s Office at Tejgaon in the capital, approved the policy on the day aiming to increase fiberisation of mobile towers from 20 per cent to 80 per cent within three years, ensuring equitable network coverage across urban, rural, coastal and hilly regions.
The policy also introduced multiple capacity layers to reduce disparities in service quality and accessibility, strengthening Bangladesh’s digital infrastructure and improving connectivity for all citizens.
After the meeting, chief adviser’s special assistant to the ICT ministry Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb said at a press briefing at the Foreign Service Academy in the city that the policy aimed to create a more competitive and business-friendly telecommunications environment.
A key element of the policy was the adjustment of foreign ownership limits, reduced from 100 per cent to 85 per cent, with a three-year grace period allowing companies to gradually release at least 15 per cent of shares to the market.
The special assistant said that the initiative would encourage local participation and transparency, while ensuring that foreign investors remained stakeholders in the country’s telecom sector without dominating it entirely.
According to the policy, the licences of foreign companies would remain valid for their full term and a three-stage migration process would be implemented to bring existing operators in line with the new framework, with final completion targeted for mid-2027.
‘The new policy replaces the outdated hierarchical licensing system, which had created excessive intermediaries and disorder, with a modern, simplified framework consisting of three main licensing levels plus one for satellite services, while all other licences have been deregulated,’ Taiyeb said.
He said that under the previous system, a few operators controlled multiple licensing levels, creating monopolies and allowing intermediaries to divert substantial revenue with minimal investment, which led to inefficiencies and hindered service delivery.
The new policy prohibits operators from holding licences across different tiers, ensuring that no single entity can dominate multiple levels simultaneously, thereby breaking entrenched monopolies and opening the sector to new entrants, he said.
The policy introduced a national infrastructure layer, categorising investors in towers and fibre networks, and that these licence holders could also operate data centres and cloud services without requiring separate approvals.
‘Technologies previously unaccounted for in the old system, such as mobile virtual network operators, private 5G networks, voice over Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7, are now formally recognised under this licensing framework,’ the said.
To support small and medium enterprises, the policy introduced light regulations at the sub-district and district levels for businesses operating at the ISP level.
The policy also addressed service quality through newly published guidelines, establishing key performance indicators for accessibility, retainability and integrity.
For broadband internet, a minimum quality standard of 15Mbps has been set and for mobile cellular internet, 10Mbps.
Under the old system, intermediaries exploited the licensing framework, diverting significant revenue to themselves while contributing minimal investment to network infrastructure, Taiyeb said.
He said that by reducing these intermediaries, the government expected to increase revenue collection, which could subsequently be used to lower duties on voice and data services or provide subsidies for consumers.
The policy introduced a modernised licensing system, simplifying operations for companies that previously worked at ITC, IIT or IDW levels.
Taiyeb said that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission currently had 26 types of licences issued to about 2,999 companies or individuals and misuse of the previous International Long Distance Telecommunications Services Policy had created disorder, hindering monitoring and service quality.
